T orah P ortion
Our Torah ‘Inner Ear’ Equilibrium
BY RABBI ERIC YANOFF
Parshat Ha’azinu
WHAT DAY IS it again? Where
am I? Where should I be?
Time in quarantine can be
a bit disorienting, wouldn’t
you agree? Days seem both
to drag on, and also we lose
track of time and don’t get
accomplished what we thought
we could. It has been a bewil-
dering few months without the
guideposts and schedules that
would normally punctuate our
time. Yes, we might chuckle at this
phenomenon of time-slippage,
but the fact is, for many people,
this inability to mark time has
truly detrimental effects. Many
people report sleeping less or
fitfully, our circadian rhythms
interrupted. The effects on our
physical and mental health are
real, and people are suffering.

This frenetic, unstructured
existence is mirrored by an
observation of the list of names
of the Torah portions that have
stretched back over the past
month. Granted, they are just
abbreviated mentions of the
first words of each parshah,
Wharton Continued from Page 9
but when read in series, the
effect is dizzying and disori-
enting: Ki Tetze (when you
go out), Ki Tavo (when you
come in), Nitzavim (standing),
Vayelech (going forth) and now
Ha’azinu (give ear).

Week after week, this past
month, we’ve been going,
coming, standing still and going
forth again! It is a challenge
that mirrors our current direc-
tionless, wandering existence.

It begins so enticingly, for
quarantine: Ki Tetze — when we
fully venture out, safely, beyond
our quarantine, when it is safe
to do so, for ourselves, and for
the society around us — what
will we find? Will we find hugs?
Handshakes? Visible smiles? In
what new ways will we express
friendship, kinship, intimacy?
What of our pre-corona-
virus world will remain, and
what will have fallen prey to
economic ruin? When will we
dance a hora once again or
fall weeping on one another’s
shoulders in the wake of loss?
Next, Ki Tavo — when
we come, when we arrive at
some new, post-closure reality,
will everyone arrive together?
Will others continue to rely
One initiative included
the 2012 launching of the
Breakthrough Prizes scientific
awards with Google co-founder
Sergey Brin, Facebook founder
Mark Zuckerberg and his wife
Priscilla Chan, and 23andMe
co-founder Anne E. Wojcicki.

With $3 million prize
money, they are the world’s
largest scientific awards, The
Economist reported.

In 2015, Milner launched
the Breakthrough Initiative
with the late physicist Stephen
Hawking, among others,
to search for extraterrestrial
intelligence in the universe. l
attract about 100 people, while
the virtual meetings have
drawn as many as 600 poten-
tial students.

Ron Dermer, Israel’s ambas-
sador to the United States,
praised Milner’s commitment.

“Israel has become a global
center of innovation, and
Wharton has long helped
train the top entrepreneurs
and business leaders across the
world. This is a perfect match,”
Dermer, who is a Wharton alum
himself, said in a news release.

Milner has been involved in
several high-profile projects in agotlieb@jewishexponent.com;
recent years.

215-832-0797 JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
on technology, on societal
supports, on deliveries instead
of in-person shopping? Will a
day at the office be the same?
Will those who work with their
hands, to create and make and
heal in the physical sense, feel
safe? A business trip? Travel
in general? What will we deem
necessary, and what will be
a frivolous risk, or just an
inconvenience? Nitzavim — what will still
be standing? What will sustain,
rooted and weathering this
storm? Will education — for our
youngest preschoolers or our
college-bound future-builders
— ever be the same? Sports,
music, culture — will it be
intimately, communally experi-
enced or virtually accessed?
Vayelech — when we go
out, we will be venturing into
a new world, just as we have
ventured and innovated and
explored and navigated every
day since this all began. I do
not aspire to “turn back the
clock” to how things were. I
hope that we gently but boldly
push forward, using the learn-
ings and warnings of our
shared experience over this
difficult time, to chart a path
CAN DL E L IGHTIN G
Sept. 25
Oct. 2
that is informed by what we’ve
experienced, to better prepare
us and strengthen us for the
challenges ahead.

Because after the past four
weeks of our Torah portions —
going, coming, standing, and
venturing — the next parshah
in the series, this week’s penul-
timate portion of the Torah,
is Ha’azinu — to give heed,
to pay attention to all we’ve
encountered, to learn, to sensi-
tize ourselves.

The name of this Torah
portion, the last one read on
a Shabbat before we conclude
the story of the Torah, comes
from the Hebrew word ozen,
or ear. The ear is the organ
of balance, of equilibrium, of
reorientation, of attunement to
what we’ve learned, so that we
might recalibrate ourselves for
the next, renewed, recreated
chapter of our journey.

As we recalibrate, we may
feel like starting the Torah all
over again, but we will have
learned much from the disori-
enting, jarring, jostling journey
we’ve endured.

The cadence and rhythm of
the Jewish holidays that come
in this season may also provide
6:34 p.m.

6:23 p.m.

us with an anchor, a rooted-
ness, a North Star point of
reference, by which we might
find meaning, reassurance and
direction in a world that may
seem as though it is spinning
off its axis.

And now that we have begun
5781, I pray that from Ki Tetze
— when the time comes, when
it is time to cautiously, prudently
go forth, into the unknown, we
learn from this time of chaos and
imbalance, and we arrive safely
at Ha’azinu — a mindfulness,
a purposeful, re-equilibration
— so that we might create an
ever stronger, ever more perfect
world in the New Year. l
Rabbi Eric Yanoff is one of the rabbis
at Adath Israel in Merion Station
and is co-president of the Board
of Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia.

The Board of Rabbis is proud to
provide diverse perspectives on
Torah commentary for the Jewish
Exponent. The opinions expressed
in this column are the author’s own
and do not reflect the view of the
Board of Rabbis.

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